I’m still catching up on my book reviews from last year and it’s time for a roundup of what I read in October and November.
October started well. We had a few days by the pool in Fuerteventura, so I managed to get a little extra reading done.
But by November I was in to the structural edits for my novel, working very long days on top of my day job, and I didn’t fit in very much reading. Boo.
Here are the books I did finish.
Bone Lines by Stephanie Bretherton
In prehistoric times, a young woman travels alone through a barren landscape, searching for a new home.
Centuries later, scientist Dr Eloise Kluft takes charge of an incredible archaeological find that might the answer to some of the enduring mysteries surrounding mankind’s origins. But as she pieces together the story of a young woman who lived thousands of years earlier, she also has to confront her own romantic past and future.
With the environment and climate change increasingly dominating the news, this thought-provoking story goes back in time to explore how early humans dealt with extreme changes in the world around them.
The two timelines also deal with issues around motherhood and relationships, examining what it means to be female and the sacrifices women make. This book manages to make the journey of Sarah, a prehistoric woman, touchingly human and engaging.
Read my review | Find it on Goodreads | Buy it on Amazon
Sour Fruit by Eli Allison
When Onion is kidnapped from her care home, she winds up in the grim river city of Kingston, destined to be sold to a skin trader known as The Toymaker. Determined to fight back, she goes on a violent, desperate ride through the city with a motley crew of VOIDs who may or may not sell her out at any second.
This is a very dark read, full of twisted violence and bad language, but one that is fizzing with energy and smarts. Onion is a hard character to sympathise with, or even like, but she’s a tough girl with a hideous background who just wants to protect herself. As the story goes on, the tentative relationships she begins to form, however reluctantly, really give the book heart.
The first in an imaginative, dystopian trilogy, I’m looking forward to catching up with the story in part two.
Read my review | Find it on Goodreads | Buy it on Amazon
These Darkening Days by Benjamin Myers
This crime novel is the sequel to Turning Blue. Set in a small Yorkshire town, the story begins with a local man discovering a woman in an alley, brutally attacked, her face slashed, barely alive. But instead of helping, he leaves her there.
The woman is a local celebrity: a middle-aged mother who was once an amateur porn star and model, now faded with age and misfortune. Her attack is picked up by the national papers that descend on the town, displacing local journo Roddy Mace, who is struggling to write his real crime book. Mace and Detective Brindle begin to look into the case, as another attack happens and the whole town is gripped by fear.
Benjamin Myers writes beautifully. His crime novels are lyrical, brutal and incredibly dark, capturing the essence of life in a remote town with little going for it but the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
The story explores what happens when rumour and mass hysteria take hold, and whether place can have an effect on behaviour. Not quite as compelling as Turning Blue, but still a great read.
Find it on Goodreads | Buy it on Amazon
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Frances and Bobbi are students in Dublin, performance poets, best friends and ex-lovers. When they meet Melissa – a photographer interested in putting together a profile of them – and her actor husband Nick, they become regular guests at the couple’s home. As the relationship dynamics among the group shift, Frances begins to examine her life and past decisions.
Sally Rooney has become the darling of the literary world and it’s easy to see why. This is one of those books that isn’t particularly plot driven, but it’s brought to life by the characters, whose often cutting, intelligent dialogue jumps off the page.
One of my favourite books of last year, I’m very much looking forward to reading Rooney’s next book, Normal People.
Find it on Goodreads | Buy it on Amazon
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